Method of cooking fowl



United States Patent Oflflce 3,402,228 Patented Aug. 19, 1969 3,462,278 METHOD OF COOKING FOWL John H. Mahon, Scott Township, Allegheny County, Pa, assignor to Calgon Corporation, a corporation of Delaware.

No Drawing. Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 490,643, Sept. 27, 1965. This application Aug. 5, 1968, Ser. No. 749,989

Int. Cl. A22c 21/00 US. Cl. 99-107 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method of cooking fowl (poultry which is more than ten months of age) is provided to obtain reduced cooking time and greater de-boned yields by cooking said fowl in a heated solution of about 0.5% or more of a non-cyclic phosphate of an alkali metal phosphate.

This application is a continuation in part of my copending application Ser. No. 490,643 filed Sept. 27, 1965,

.now abandoned.

This invention relates to poultry processing and particularly to the cooking of poultry. In the cooking of old poultry, generally classified commercially as fowl (old chickens, etc.), the cooking time is usually long, and the boning and recovery of flesh during the boning operation is tedious and diflicult because of the strong adherence' of the flesh to the bone. Ordinary cooking time for old poultry or commercial fowl is typically two hours and thirty minutes in boiling water and meat yields on de-boning are 35% to 40%. In addition, old poultry tends to rapidly lose its fresh taste by reason of oxidation. Many attempts have been made to reduce the cooking time, such as by pressure cooking, but with resulting loss of flavor. As a result, the standard for cooking excellency has remained the low, smooth boil and the cooking time at about two and one-half hours.

In order to better understand the nature and significance of this invention it is necessary to define the several commercial classifications of poultry. Generally poultry is classified as follows:

Immature birds 57 weeks of age. Broilers and fryers 912 Weeks of age. Roasters 35 months of age.

More than 10 mos. of age Fowl (breastbone inflexible).

Poultry, other than fowl, may be cooked quite rapidly to produce tender, succulent product of good taste. For example, a fryer may be cooked in water at a low boil in about a half an hour. An old fowl, on the other hand, without the treatment of this invention cannot be cooked to a satisfactory product in the same bath in less than about two and one half hours. This apparently is the result of marked toughness of the flesh and connective tissue in the old poultry.

The practice of the present invention reduces the cooking time for fowl to one hour and thirty minutes without loss of flavor but, on the contrary, an improvement in flavor. In addition, there results a marked increase in de-boned yields and a marked improvement in oxidative stability. The reasons for the improved de-boned yields and reduced cook time are not understood. There is a very significant loosening of the cooked flesh from the bone in the practice of the present invention, making the meat more easily separated from the bone.

In the practice of the present invention, fowl are cooked in a solution of water containing from about 0.5% up to about 4% of a noncyclic polyphosphate of an alkali metal selected from the group sodium and potassium and having a ratio of alkali metal oxide to phosphorous pentoxide of about 0.9 to 1 to about 2.0 to 1. It is preferred to use fully substituted salts of polyphosphoric acid or where partially substituted salts, such as sodium acid pyrophosphate (Na H P O are used that they be used in the presence of a fully substituted salt of polyphosphoric acid. Among the compositions which may be used in the practice of the present invention including one or more partially substituted alkali metal polyphosphates are (a) mixtures of M P O and MzHzPzOq in ratios of from 1 to 0 to about 1 to 2 by weight; (b) M HP O and (c) mixtures of M H P O and M HP O in ratios of from 0 to 1 to about 1 to 2 by weight where M is one of the alkali metals sodium and potassium. The preferred polyphosphate for use in the practice of this invention is sodium tripolyphosphate (Na P O Other molecularly dehydrated phosphates which are similarly useful are sodium hexametaphosphate (NaPO tetrasodium pyrophosphate (Na P O tetrapolassium pyrophosphate (K P O and potassium tripolyphosphate (K P O The invention is particularly advantageous in the preparation of old poultry generally termed fowl in the trade, because of the marked reduction in cooking time which may be achieved and the resultant commercial advantage.

Preferably the amount of polyphosphate included in the cooking solution should lie in the range 0.5 to 4%, although larger amounts may be used without deleteriously affecting the fowl but without any added improvement in processing. Generally, amounts between 0.5% to 1.5% snould be used where the broth from the cook is to be used. Larger amounts than 1.5% tend to give the broth an excessively soapy taste. Preferably the cooking temperature is above C. and the cook solution is free of sodium chloride above that added to impart flavor.

The use of phosphates in connection with the process ing of meat and fat to produce some desired results is not in itself new. Hall Patent 2,513,094 discloses the use of certain phosphates in cured meat to inhibit the greening which occurs in such meats as a result of oxidation on standing. Watts, Patent 2,629,644 discloses the addition of phosphates to aqueous fatty compositions to stabilize them against oxidative deterioration (rancidity). Delaney Patent 3,188,213 discloses a method of tenderizing fresh meat such as beef by subjecting the same to contact with an aqueous solution containing a major proportion of sodium chloride and minor proportions of non-linear phosphates, t and, in addition, a proteolytic enzyme. Delaney (lips the meat in such solution for about 45 seconds. Mahon Patent 3,104,170 describes a method of treating raw poultry to prevent organoleptic deterioration by introducing into the poultry flesh a phosphate in an amount in excess of 0.1%. Nothing in any of this prior art, teaches or even suggests that old poultry can be cooked in a solution of polyphosphate as here described and claimed so as to reduce the cooking time and thereby markedly increase the production to be achieved in any set of cooking vessels.

This invention can perhaps be best understood by reference to the following examples illustrative of the process.

EXAMPLE I Two hundred pounds of frozen fowl were thawed overnight in 64 F. water. One hundred pounds of the thawed fowl were cooked for 2 hours and 30 minutes in pounds of water. The other hundred pounds of fowl Were cooked for 1 hour and 35 minutes in 140 pounds of /2% sodium tripolyphosphate solution. Both the sodium tripolyphosphate and water solutions were kept at a low smooth boil.

After the fowl were cooked, they were cooled for 20 minutes in 64 F. water. They were drained, weighed and de-boned manually. The meat, skin and bone weights were obtained and samples of the meat were frozen for later analyiss.

The same procedure was followed for fowl cooked in 1% and 2% sodium tripolyphosphate solution. The controls for these two tests were cooked for 2 hours and 30 minutes. The test batches were cooked for 1 hour and 30 minutes and 1 hour and 45 minutes respectively.

Subjective evaluation by experienced plant personnel indicated that the fowl cooked in sodium tripolyphosphate solution were adequately cooked at 1 hour and 30 minutes and slightly overcooked at 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Two hundred pounds of frozen fowl were thawed overnight in 64 F. water. Three fifty-three pound samples of thawed aged fowl were cooked successively in 76 pounds of gently boiling water. Each sample was cooked for 2 /2 hours.

Three fifty-three pound samples of thawed fowl were cooked successively in gently boiling 1 /2% Na P O solution. Each sample was cooked for 1 /2 hours. 1

After the fowl were cooked, they were cooled for 20 minutes in 64 F. water. They were drained, weighed and manually de-boned. The meat, skin and bone weights were obtained and Samples of the meat were frozen for later analysis.

The same procedure was followed for fowl cooked in 2% Na P O solution. The controls were cooked for 2 /2 hours in water. The test samples were cooked for 1 /2 hours. All of the fowl cooked in Na P O solution for 1 /2 hours were judged to be thoroughly cooked.

TABLE 2 Percent Percent Percent NasPsOm Treatment Cook time Meat yield moisture in fowl 1st water cook 2'30" 35. 8 66. 2nd water cook 2'30" 35. 8 3rd water cook 2'30 35. 7 1st cook in 1%% N 9.51 3010 solution- 1'30 38.0 67. 0 0. 14 2nd cook in 145% NaEPQOXO solution. 1'30" 37. 9 66. 2 0. 14 3rd cook in 1%% g NaiPsolu solution- 1'30" 37. 3 67. 0 0. 14 1st cook in 2% N asPsoio solution- 1'30" 39. 6 68.0 0. 16 2nd cook in 2% N a P3O10 solution- 1'30" 38. 8 67. 5 0. 14 3rd cook in 2% Na P3Om solution. 1'30" 39. O 66. 0 0. 14

EXAMPLE III Twenty-eight chilled fowl were halved. The halves were paired for control purposes. Four samples, three halves per sample, were cooked 1 /2 hours each in the same gently boiling 1 /2% Na P O solution. Four samples, three halves per sample, were cooked 2% hours each in the same water broth. The cooked half carcasses were cooled in water for 5 minutes, drained, weighed and manually de-boned. The meat, skin and bone weights were obtained and samples were frozen for later analysis. The fowl cooked for 1 hour and 30 minutes in the Na P O solution, were judged to be thoroughly cooked.

Six commercially processed fowl were halved. The weighed halves were random y placed in four groups of three.

One group was cooked 1 hour and 45 minutes in gently boiling 2% Na P O solution, one in 4% Na P O solution, one in 6% Na P O solution, and one for 2 hours and 30 minutes in gently boiling water.

The cooked fowl were cooled in water, drained for 5 minutes, weighed and manually de-boned. The meat, skin and bones were weighed. Samples of the meat and skin were frozen for later analysis.

TABLE 4 Percent Percent Cook Meat Percent Na PaOw Treatment time yield moisture in fowl 2% Na5P3O cook 1'45" 44. 46 68.0 0.38 4% Na5P O cook 1'45" 44.19 66. 8 0.78 6% NB-sPsOlu 000k 1'45" 43. 55 64. 5 0. 88 Water cook 2'30" 40.83 64.0

The foregoing examples illustrate the drastic reduction in cooking time and increase in boning yields which result from the practice of this invention in fowl. The significance of these in commercial production of cooked aged fowl are obvious. In the present practice which requires a 2 /2 hour cook, it is possible to get no more than three cooks per 8 hour day. By the present invention it is possible to get as many as five cooks per 8 hour day, a. production increase of 67 /s% from the same equipment. At the same time a boned meat yield increment of about 5% is achieved. These increases in production are of great importance to the poultry processor and solve a problem which heretofore remained unsolved.

The same effects can be obtained at lower cooking temperatures, such as F.- F. In all cases marked reductions in TBA values are attained. The following examples are illustrative.

EXAMPLE VI Fowl cooked in 185 F.190 F. phosphate solution Approximately twenty-eight pounds (ten carcasses) of frozen fowl were thawed in a tank of 65 F. tap water. The necks, wing tips and leaf fat were removed.

Five carcasses were cooked in a 185 F.-190 F., 3% solution of Na P O for 3% hours. The remaining five carcasses were cooked in water at 185 F.-190 F. for 3% hours.

The cooked fowl were cooled in water for 10 minutes,

drained, weighed and deboned. The meat samples were frozne for later analysis.

Cook Cook Percent TBA time Temperameat Percent Treatment (hr.) ture F.) yield P20 0 days 6 days NaaP oio 000k t- 3% 185 49. 88 0. 50 0, 43 0. 4 Water cook 3% 185 40. 06 0. 46 4. 70 7.007

EXAMPLE VII Fowl cooked in boiling phosphate solution aqueous solution of about 0.5% or more of a non-cyclic phosphate of an alkali metal selected from the group consisting of sodium and potassium having a ratio of alkali metal oxide to P 0 from about 0.9 to 1 to about 2 to 1.

2. The method of cooking fowl which is more than ten months of age to obtain reduced cooking time and greater de-boned yields as claimed in claim 1 wherein the phosphate is sodium tripolyphosphate.

3. The method of cooking fowl which is more than ten months of age to obtain reduced cooking time and greater de-boned yields as claimed in claim 1 wherein the phosphate is a mixture of sodium pyrophosphate and sodium tripolyphosphate.

Approx.

cook TBA tempera- Cook Percent Medium cooking treatment ture (F.) time P205 0 days 4 days Wat 212 230" 0. 33 4. 6. 00 3%, NmHPOi 212 1'45" 0. 72 2.00 3. 75 3%, Na4PzO1 212 1 0. 52 0.58 0. 73 3%, 2; 1, Na4P2O /Na2H2PzO- 212 1'45" 0.70 0. 4s 0. 55 3%, 1;2, NaiP2o /Na2H2P2o 212 1'45" 0. 61 0.78 0. 3%, 1:1, Na4PzO1/NazHzPz0 212 1'43 0. 52 0 68 0. 75 3%, N52H2P20 212 1'42" 0. 67 0. 70 0.80 3% (NaPOQx 212 200" 0. 62 0. 63 o.

While the foregoing specification has set out certain References Cited preferred embodiments and practices of this invention, 35 it will be understood that the invention may be otherwise UNITED STATES PATENTS embodied within the scope of the following claims. 2,198,209 4/1940 Musher 99-157 X I claim: 2,629,664 2/1953 Watts et al. 1. The method of cooking fowl which is more than 3,104,170 9/1963 Mahon 99157 X ten months of age to obtain reduced cooking time and 40 3,188,213 6/1965 Delaney 99107 greater de-boned yields which comprises cooking said poultry for about one and one-half hours in a heated HYMAN LORD, Primary Examiner UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3 ,462 ,278 August 19 196 John H. Mahon It is certified that error appears in the above identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 3, line 7, "analysiss" should read analysis Column 5, in the first table, under the heading TBA, 7.007"

should read 7.00

Signed and sealed this 19th day of May 1970.

(SEAL) Attest:

WILLIAM E. SCHU'YLEB, JR.

Edward M. Fletcher, Jr. Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

